


All the cells in my body are screaming it’s you

by zimriya



Series: The last flame of my life (a Homin ABO AU) [5]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Mating Bond, POV Outsider, alpha changmin, omega yunho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 15:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zimriya/pseuds/zimriya
Summary: Cool Kiz on the Block, badminton, at least three months of filming, and there’s two things that Jongsoo knows about Shim Changmin, his soon to be partner. The first: they’re going to get along swimmingly. The second: Shim Changmin is mated. Canon AU.





	All the cells in my body are screaming it’s you

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't really know anything about Lee Jongsoo, he was a plot device, nobody @ me.
> 
> Set sort of around July 12th, 2013. I really didn’t do a lot of date stuff because I didn’t think I was going to post this and now I’m like OHHH NOOOO NAT DID YOU MESS UP MORE. No, I think it’s fine. Badminton was filmed from around the end of June through July to August, so it’s FINE. 
> 
> This falls kind of immediately before **[That heart fluttering feeling](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10683927)** and after **[My heart has changed after meeting you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546152/chapters/31079514)**.
> 
> Title from  운명 by TVXQ. To continue the theme some more.
> 
> Betaed by Kinah and Hexmen, stars as always. All other mistakes are my own.
> 
>  [PRIMER](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/aboau)

 

**All the cells in my body are screaming it’s you**

\--

 _Cool Kiz on the Block_ , badminton, at least three months of filming, and there’s two things that Jongsoo knows about Shim Changmin, his soon to be partner.

The first: they’re going to get along swimmingly. Clothing choices aside, Changmin is a hard worker, a dutiful if not vocal maknae (for the cameras, at least, always for the cameras), and he approaches their sport and their show with all the tenacity that Jongsoo wagers is what got him to _Cool Kiz_ on the first place. Or the hundreds of thousands of fans he has, which Jongsoo looks up immediately following their first shoot. 

Changmin’s fanclub is impressive and expansive and has only grown since they’d seen each other last on _X-Man_ before all of TVXQ’s legal trouble, but despite all that, Changmin remains down to earth and humble to the point where Jongsoo almost forgets he’s world renowned and famous.

They’re going to get along like a house on fire.

The second thing, is that Shim Changmin is mated. 

It’s not clear at first. Changmin shows up to practices smelling like what Jongsoo figures a world famous celebrity ought to smell like, and while it takes no time at all for the younger man to sweat through all of his makeup, the thin veneer of fame that clings to him makes it harder to get to the grittier details.

His age. His fitness. What sort of anatomy he’s got going on underneath all the painted-on celebrity trousers. 

It takes Jongsoo an embarrassing two episodes to conclude Changmin is even _an alpha_ , and even then, that’s more to do with how the man acts with Hodong-hyung than any sort of lingering pheromones.     

But they’re bad at badminton, and they practice more often than not, when Changmin’s in the country, and so eventually, shockingly, the walls and carefully constructed trappings of Choikang Changmin fall away to reveal Shim Changmin, twenty-six, alpha, and--

“You’re mated?” Jongsoo says. 

It’s just them on the court, but Changmin darts a nervous look around him like people could be listening anyway. Already Jongsoo’s had enough experience to realize often times they are. They’d come to the gym late for practice this time, and it’s private property so they’re safe until they have to leave the echoing walls.

On the bench, Changmin’s manager shifts infinitesimally, but doesn’t look up from his phone.

“Sorry,” Jongsoo says.

He thinks Changmin’s ears might be blushing, but all the idol does is nod, almost too quick for Jongsoo to catch. 

Jongsoo blinks. “You are?’

Changmin nods again, slower this time, but still with the flushing, frankly adorable ears.

“Huh,” Jongsoo says. That hadn’t been in the Naver search.

“It’s not--” Changmin breaks off when his voice carries through the empty expanse of the gym, and he swats helplessly at the shuttlecock a few times. “It’s need to know, actually,” he finishes. He won’t meet Jongsoo’s eyes. 

“Changmin-ah.” 

Changmin turns almost like he can’t help himself.

Jongsoo reaches out to pluck the shuttlecock away from his partner, and smiles. “I get it.” He settles into position, drops both hands down, angles the shuttlecock, pulls back, and swings. “I’m a celebrity too.” 

He and Changmin both watch the arc of the shuttlecock as it goes sailing to land satisfyingly on the other side of the net, silent. 

Changmin’s manager finally looks up to see the fuss, and claps. 

“So are we,” Changmin maybe says, voice pinched, but Jongsoo can’t be sure, and it’s none of his business anyway.

\--

Jongsoo doesn’t mean to make assumptions.

Fame is a prison, images are carefully constructed, and he’d meant it when he said it was none of his business, but Changmin spends more time texting him and practicing with him than it seems he does being Choikang Changmin, and part of Jongsoo can’t help but be curious. 

He supposes firstly, towards whether Changmin’s mate is even an omega, for he’s had his share of non-standard relationships and dated his share of non-beta women. Decorum says alphas should date and mate and marry omegas, but decorum also says that a beta can’t take a knot, and Jongsoo’s known enough impressive (and frankly terrifying) men and women in showbusiness to know neither of those things are true.

Changmin’s got an alpha mother and an omega father and a slight chip on his shoulder about it; he’ll give you hell if you so much as breathe wrongly about his company mate Kwon Boa, and he spends most of their first badminton game making it crystal clear to anyone who breathes wrongly about the omegas among the opposing teams that he will be having none of that. So Jongsoo supposes Changmin’s mate could be a beta or even an alpha.

Second, Jongsoo wonders what gender that person may be, although that may be a discredit to idols period, and generally Jongsoo feels bad playing into those stereotypes. It feels wrong, being famous, and being that he very much thinks of Changmin as his younger brother.

So mostly, Jongsoo _worries_ for Changmin, since he spends all his free time texting and practicing with Jongsoo. That can’t be _nice_ for whomever Changmin irrefutably belongs to. And part of Jongsoo worries that whomever it is doesn’t value Changmin enough to be jealous.

So, he pries, a little. 

He starts with Hodong-hyung.

Hodong-hyung has known Changmin for years, although from what Jongsoo has gleaned, Hodong-hyung is more U-Know Yunho’s friend than Changmin’s. Or at least he’d started out that way.

Changmin and Hodong-hyung have been working together since the start of the year, and Jongsoo wouldn’t doubt their comradery for a moment.

And it’s easy for Jongsoo to corner the man before filming, and to ask after his wife, and then not so subtly ask after _Changmin’s_ wife. 

“Changmin’s wife?” Hodong-hyung says, blinking, and finally looking up from where he’d been pouring over the script for this week’s episode.

Jongsoo can see Changmin over by the stylists getting his hair set, and smiles when the younger man waves.

“Shim Changmin,” says Hodong-hyung. “Choikang Changmin. Max Changmin.” 

 Changmin’s English name gives Jongsoo mild pause. “Um--”

“Our Changmin,” Hodong-hyung finishes. “His wife?” 

One of the staff near them sputters, and when Jongsoo turns to him in concern he realizes it’s one of Changmin’s managers. “Erm--”

“I hadn’t realized he was okay with that,” Hodong-hyung is saying, more than a little confusingly. “But okay then. I guess Yunho’s more grown up than I’d thought--”

“Yunho?” Jongsoo asks, extra confused now. “What--”

“Changmin-ah, script!” the manager from before barks, and Changmin happily ditches the women fussing with his hair with a joyous exclamation that he has duties to attend to, and that his overly curly hair can wait. 

Hodong-hyung has already turned back to his own script, and Jongsoo concludes his time has passed.

It still eats at him, however.

\--

“Changmin-ah.” They’re at late solo practice again, since Changmin’s world tour is eating into their filming schedule, and the both of them would like to actually win something before the sport is done. 

They’re playing one-on-one, have been for the last two hours, and neither of them have retained any semblance of dignity, given how hard they’re breathing.

Changmin at least still remains _physically_ flawless, even without makeup and sweating through his probably expensive workout clothes.

“Yeah, Hyung?” Changmin says.

“Does U-Know Yunho... ssi,” Jongsoo starts, mostly to watch Changmin’s lips pull up and his ears blush red, as he always does when anyone mentions his bandmate. “Not want people to know about your... mate?”

Changmin relaxes back out of his badminton stance, and blinks. “You’re still on about that?” he asks. 

Jongsoo feels immediately bad. “Well, I mean, I don’t want her to feel like I’m monopolizing you--”

“Her?”

“Them,” Jongsoo amends, embarrassed and rubbing at the back of his neck. “And I would understand if you’d want to practice less--”

“Hyung.” Changmin’s face is doing something funny. “When I’m not practicing with you or filming, I can guarantee the only person I’m around is my mate.” 

Jongsoo blinks. “Okay then,” he says automatically. That means the person has to work with Changmin? Or is one of his staff? Or is his...

Jongsoo turns to regard Changmin’s silent manager with suddenly critical eyes. The man’s younger than Jongsoo would have thought, and not exactly _bad_ looking, but he’s mostly silent or denying and not at all what Jongsoo would have expected for someone so bright and lively as Changmin.

Changmin follows his line of sight and squawks. “Gross, Hyung!” he shouts.

The man on the bench doesn’t so much as flinch.

Jongsoo lifts both of his hands in defense, the badminton racket in his right one almost an afterthought. “Sorry!” he says.

“It is _not_ Jooyoung-hyung,” Changmin says. “Jooyoung-hyung is an alpha.”

Jongsoo pauses.

Changmin’s manager--Jooyoung-hyung--doesn’t so much as twitch.

Changmin swears. “That came out wrong,” he says, and rubs at the back of his neck. “It’s--my mate is--”

Jooyoung-hyung finally does look up, eyes sharp, but Changmin just swears some more, dips his head, and ducks under the net to stand closer. He gets all the way into Jongsoo’s personal bubble and it’s a testament to how fast found-family they’ve become that Jongsoo doesn’t even flinch.

“My mate _is_ U-Know Yunh--Yunho-hyung,” Changmin mutters, almost an undertone and so slurred Jongsoo can barely parse it, but Changmin’s manager is standing anyway.

“Changmin-ah,” the man snaps.

“Fuck, _I’m_ doing it now too,” Changmin says, ignoring him.

When Jongsoo lifts a brow, he snorts.

“Calling him U-Know like I haven’t had my _dick_ \--”

“Changmin. Ah,” Changmin’s manager snarls, the honorific its own sentence.

Changmin throws both hands up, but somehow manages not to brain anyone in the face with his badminton racket. “Look, he’s not going to go the papers about it,” he retorts. He’s still standing close enough that Jongsoo sort of fears for his nose and can also see the blush of Changmin’s ears. “The show’s ratings matter to him too.”

Jongsoo mulls that over and concedes Changmin does have a point. _Cool Kiz_ is doing well enough ratings wise, but stress of a scandal like TVXQ are _practically married_ would not be good for them.  

Changmin’s manager sighs but sits back down. 

“You won’t, will you?” Changmin turns suddenly serious, worried eyes on Jongsoo.  

It’s the first time he really sees the alpha in him, in the minute clench of his fingers and the way his shoulders lift, likes he’s about three seconds from waging war in defense of himself. In defense of his band; in defense of his bandmate; in defense of his _mate_ , period. 

Jongsoo pats him on the arm, and tries not to look too much like he’s stuck his hand in a bear trap. “Of course not,” he says. “What kind of monster you take me for?” 

Changmin grins, bright and happy, before swiveling to face his manager. “See.”

“Bring him to practice, next time,” Jongsoo finishes, and releases Changmin with a spring in his step.

The squawking, flushing, embarrassed sputtering Changmin goes into will never get old.

\--

U-know Yunho is nothing like what Jongsoo had expected, honestly. 

He’s met the man before, of course, but that had been years ago on _X-Man_ , and the U-Know Yunho from _X-Man_ was shorter, somehow more intense, and frankly, the spitting image of South Korea’s typical alpha idol.

Jongsoo had been assuming that the man was an alpha for almost all of those years.

And so had the Internet, actually, because Naver had returned mostly fan speculation, fanfiction, and very hush-hush designation talk when Jongsoo caved and imputed ‘Choikang Changmin’ and ‘U-Know Yunho’ and ‘mates.’

According to the internet, U-know Yunho is 183 centimeters, has a face that is too tiny to be fair, and is the alpha to Kim Jaejoong’s omega, no matter how much proof there is that Kim Jaejoong and  Yunho U-Know have not spoken to each other since 2009.

The U-know Yunho who comes to practice alongside a grudging, grumbling Changmin, is nothing like those highly detailed descriptions. For one, Jongsoo will have to concede that while the internet might have lied about the man’s height, he still manages to compete with Changmin, and his presence alone nearly fills the gym itself. His hair is soft looking, the kind of blond that Jongsoo thinks girls compare to fruits, and falling gently across his forehead like a caress.

Jongsoo would feel bad about the arias he’s apparently composing to the man, if the fact that he’s an omega--and _Changmin’s_ , omega, at that--wasn’t so strikingly clear.

It’s something in the way he walks, even though he’s leading, and something in the way he leans in, even though Changmin’s pointedly behind him.

“Hyung,” Changmin is in the middle of saying, giving up on staying back and leading the way into the court with his head held high, even as Hodong-hyung immediately is disengaging from the PDs to come over and greet the two of them. “You didn’t have to drop me off--”

“Changdol-ah,” says U-know Yunho, and smiles beautifully when Hodong-hyung reaches them. 

Jongsoo is a beta, has never been anything but nearly all the way scent blind, and makes a point not to buy into stereotypes or act like anyone is a wilting flower.

U-Know Yunho’s smile takes his breath away.

“Yunho-yah!” Hodong-hyung booms, shaking Jongsoo out of his thoughts.

There’s hugging, what Jongsoo wagers is begging for Yunho to be filmed, and ultimately, after an odd exchange between Changmin and probably Yunho’s managers, a gentle refusal from Changmin’s bandmate.

Jongsoo watches the three of them for a little while, until Changmin sighs, rolls his eyes for show, and leaves them without a backwards glance. 

They don’t seem bothered. Hodong-hyung looks about two seconds from making Yunho dance, or something. 

Jongsoo aches for _X-Man_ , suddenly. 

Changmin appears at his shoulder. “This is why I never bring him to filming or practice,” he’s says in lieu of greeting.

Hodong-hyung wins the battle for a dance break, and the consoling, clapping, and begging song and dance starts up with with the PDs and Yunho and Changmin’s managers once again. 

Jongsoo turns to look at Changmin. 

“He’s a ham,” the younger man says, but his eyes are twinkling, and his fingers are tapping to the imaginary beat Yunho is dancing to. 

Jongsoo would wager he hasn’t even noticed--that it was just something they did, Changmin and Yunho, almost as autonomous as breathing.

“I remember that,” he says.

Changmin looks at him, eyes shrewd.

“From _X-Man_ ,” Jongsoo explains. He almost feels like he has to _defend_ himself, and then is mildly startled. What--

“Oh yeah.” Changmin’s voice cool as ice. “You were on that show together.”

Jongsoo blinks. “Yeah,” he says. “We’ve been over this. We talked about this the day we started--”

“Right.” Changmin has turned his attention back to Yunho, who appears to be leaving the set with more than a few bows from Hodong-hyung, and no backwards look towards Changmin. 

“He’s not going to say goodbye?” Jongsoo asks, after a mild pause.

Changmin doesn’t seem bothered, and shrugs. “We’re not really demonstrative,” he says, which Jongsoo thinks is blatantly a lie. “And I mean, he’s the one who insisted on dropping me off, anyway--” He breaks off, startled, and begins backing up. “No,” he’s saying, as Yunho starts jogging towards him. “No.” He raises his voice. “Hyung--”

Yunho comes grazing between the two of them to slap a surprisingly firm hand to Changmin’s shoulder, and grins. “Changdol-ah,” he says again.

His voice is rougher than Jongsoo had remembered, but no less musical. Like he’s supposed to be an idol. Or _Changmin’s_ a tiny voice in the back of Jongsoo’s mind points out. Because they fit together so very perfectly, even as Changmin is fighting the hold Yunho has on his shoulder, and as they go sidestepping in circles around the gym.

“Yes, I know, I’ll see you later--”

“Make me proud, Changdol-ah--”

“Oh my fuck--fine--I love you too--get off--ugh--”  

Jongsoo stares at the two of them in a new light, blinking, even as Yunho finally lets go of Changmin and is striding back towards the gym doors without even a backwards glance. 

“You could--you could say it back, you _asshole_!” Changmin shouts after him, cheeks blazing, and when Yunho lifts one hand up with his thumb in the air and Changmin _blushes_ , Jongsoo gets the distinct feeling he’s missed something. 

“Idiot,” says Changmin, clearly still embarrassed, but also blatantly pleased. He smells like Jongsoo remembers his grandparents smelling. Like home, and family, and safe.

“You’re different with him,” Jongsoo says. 

Changmin shrugs his shoulders, but doesn’t fight him. “Whole, you mean,” he says. 

Jongsoo blinks.

Changmin won’t meet his eyes, but he repeats himself anyway. “I’m whole with him,” he says. 

Yunho’s gone out the doors now, leaving behind a rather despondent-looking Hodong-hyung, and fruitlessly-trying-to-cheer-him-up Soogeun-hyung.

Jongsoo feels his mouth fall open.

“Anyway.” Changmin gives himself a shake, shoots Jongsoo a quick, mildly embarrassed and besotted grin, and starts over towards where his manager has set up camp beside his racket. 

Jongsoo’s never really _believed_ in soulmates before. Certainly, he’s had his doubts about several of the mated couples his life. How could they, idiots that they sometimes are, be destined by _fate?_

But Changmin and Yunho…

It’s a thought, pervasive as the way that all of Changmin’s conversations had been colored by another person--by Yunho, Jongsoo realizes rather abruptly--so fully and completely that Jongsoo had barely noticed it. It was there in how Changmin always snorted when people left their towels on the bench in the locker room. How Changmin’s smiles were always the sharpest towards alphas who did the chest beating, sexism thing in spades.

Changmin had been telling him about Yunho for days, and Jongsoo just hadn’t known where to look.

Jongsoo thinks he could believe this, just this once. 

He rolls his shoulders back, breathes, and gathers his thoughts. Then he tries on a grin, and goes jogging after his partner. “You going to actually hit something today?”

Changmin hand comes up with the middle finger up, and the move is eerily similar to Yunho’s just minutes before. 

Jongsoo smirks, dodges the gut punch, and makes a note to clear his schedule for whenever the two of them eventually get married. 

\--

**Omake**

\--

“Wait, tell me that again?”

“Hyung’s jealous of you and me.”

“… Has he gone blind?”

“… What?’

“You look at him like the sun shines out of his ass, Changmin-ah.”

“Shut up.”

“You look at him like you want to give him _twenty-five children_ \--”

“Shut up shut up shut up--how did you even _find_ that--”

“Your fans have incredibly long memories--”

“Look, just. I risked sexile to warn you please don’t meet Yunho-hyung alone, you asshole--”

“You look at him like he’s _gravity_ \--”

“Fuck it. Yunho-hyung! Wake up and come help me _murder_ Jongsoo-hyung--”

“You look at him like you want to write him _love songs_ \--”

“I have _already written him love songs_ \--Shit! I mean--Goodbye!”

[dial tone]

end.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr masterpost](http://zimriya.tumblr.com/post/173211185435/all-the-cells-in-my-body-are-screaming-its-you) || [Twitter masterpost](https://twitter.com/zimriya/status/988236440810278914).
> 
> Comments, kudos, retweets/reblogs as always, much appreciated.
> 
> ALSO PLEASE DO READ **[My heart has changed after meeting you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546152/chapters/31079514)** , the currently ongoing fic in this ABO universe.


End file.
